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Tag: Revenue

In the first quarter of this year, game once again led Korean contents industry in terms of revenue and export income while some drives the game as one of addictive substance comparable to narcotic, alcohol, and gambling.

According to MCST(Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism) and KOCCA(Korean Creative Contents Agency)’s ’2014 Q1 Contents Industry Trend Report’, the game industry of Korea achieved revenue of $2.866B and export income of $840M, respectively increased by 23% and 10.6% on year-on-year basis. Especially its export income took more than 60% of whole contents industry’s export income.

The game industry recorded the best growth(23.0%) in terms of the revenue, followed by broadcasting image producer(19.0%), movie(15.1%), contents solution(11.1%), etc. while it took third place(10.6%) in terms of export income following contents solution(18.8%) and music(14.7%).

In terms of total revenue and total export income of Korean contents industry, each recorded $2.29B and $1.38B increased by 6.4% and 8.0% on year-on-year basis.

The report researched on 86 listed companies and 600 unlisted companies and referred to a macro-statistical data provided by National Statistical Office and the Bank of Korea. For more information about the report, you can find it at www.mcst.go.kr or www.kocca.kr. (if you can read Korean, tho. ;))

NEXON announced 4th quarter revenue as well as revenue for 2012 on 13th through TSE(Tokyo Stock Excahnge). NEXON recorded $1.38 billion for 2012 revenue, which 24% is increased comparing to 2011. Revenue in Japan has been increased a lot since NEXON acquired Gloops, a mobile game company.

NEXON declared that they are going to approach to the Japanese mobile game market more aggressively with the acquiring of Gloops in last October. According to the announcement, NEXON recorded $130 million revenue during the 4th quarter of 2012 in Japan only, which 72% is increased comparing to the same period in 2011. Considering NEXON recorded $91.5 million revenue for the 4th quarter in Korea, Japan market’s revenue overtook Korean market’s revenue already. NEXON also acquired another Japanese mobile game company – inBlue. NEXON expects better revenue from Japanese market in 2013 because NEXON made a contract with DeNA who is operating one of biggest mobile game platform Mobage, in January.

NEXON will launch Warface from Crytek and Pro Baseball 2K from 2K Sports during the first half. DOTA2 from Valve and Counter Strike 2 Online will be ready for the second half. NEXON did not leave a comment on Maple Story 2 and Mabinogi 2. Cyphers is scheduled to launch at the end of 2013 in China.

Nexon held a press conference last month in Seoul, where the companies headquarter is located, to review the global gaming business in 2009 and present its future business plans.

In 2009, Nexon’s revenue from the global operation surpassed 700 billion Won (US$ 538.5 million), 30% increase from 450.9 billion Won (US$346.9 million) in 2008. Revenue from outside of Korea accounts for 67% of total revenue, or 500 billion Won (US$ 384.6 million).

Min Seo, CEO of Nexon, didn’t specifically confirm the 2009 revenue but said “the estimate is not far from our internal numbers.” Nexon is not a publicly traded company so it doesn’t have an obligation to share its financial information with public.

The reason behind the revenue soar stems from its existing lucrative games, such as Maple Story, Mabinogi, and Kart Rider as well as newly-added Dungeon Fighter Online by acquiring its developer, Neople. Dungeon Fighter Online reached 200,000 Concurrent Users (CCU) in Korea and 2 million CCUs in China.

Nexon’s global service exceeded 50% of total corporate revenue in 2007 and continued to grow, ?accounting for 56% in 2008 and 67% in 2009. Operations in Japan and Europe grow 95% and 150% respectively. Nexon plans to maintain its momentum by investing resources in emerging markets such as North America and Europe, focusing on localization, and pursuing self-publishing ?led by its local subsidiaries.

In Korea, Nexon plans to launch four games: Ever Planet (MMORPG), Dragon Nest (MMORPG), Nexon Star (social network game), and a Chinese web browser game?熱血三國 (열혈삼국: Kor) in the first half alone. A sequel to its blockbuster games such as Mabinogi and Maple Story is under production now.

Outside of its online gaming business, Nexon releases Maple Story for Nintendo DS and develops mobile games though its subsidiary Nexon Mobile.